Cartoonist

The drink for when you feel like Truman Capote

Jim Beam Bourbon & Ginger Beer

A pleasant and light drink packaged in an unflatteringly squat 330ml can. The contents of alcopops are more complicated to interpret than those of energy drinks – if you’re consuming an energy or sports drink, and are worried if it’s going to be bad for you* then there’s three unhealthy things to check for: caffeine, sugars and sodium.

With alcopops, you also need to check the alcoholic content (in this case 4.8%, the same as a similarly-sized beer) the standard drinks per serving (1.3), how much of it is the branded alcoholic drink (Jim Beam bourbon, 11.04%) and how much of it is carbonated sugar water (everything else).

If you were mixing this drink yourself you’d probably go for this ratio anyway. It tastes quite nice, especially while sitting on the porch in the sun reading Jude Morgan. Obviously these pre-mixes are more expensive ($7.57 per litre instead of $6.54 if you mixed it yourself – with a much larger outlay) and if you were at a party you’d feel compelled to drink the entire six-pack (7.8 drinks, a bad idea), but on the plus side at least you’d have a controlled mix that wouldn’t be getting stronger and stronger as the night went on.

* Spoiler: it will be. Stay away from the large sizes, and if possible, brush your teeth afterwards.